First Post

This is my first official post on my Jordan blog. Later, I'll be uploading pictures, videos, and maybe even Jordanian food onto this website. For now, however, I'll bore you with words.

The flight over was pretty long, but I slept for some of it. I made friends with the girl on my left, whose name is Amal. She taught me a couple things about Arabic, and was very nice. There were a lot of huge families on the completely booked flight, and I think I was one out of 3 non-Arabs on the plane. There were a lot of little kids on the plane, so it was pretty noisy. I didn't mind, though. The kids were cute!

It was good to land in Amman. As the plane got lower to the ground, I glanced out the window and realized that we were flying over nothing but sand. Jordan is a very dry country (in fact, they have a really bad water situation. It's estimated that if recent conservation efforts fail, the country will be waterless in around 50 years).

I still don't have my suitcase. Luckily, my guitar was considered "oversized," and so it made it on the plane through a different process. My suitcase is still in Detroit, presumably. I should get it tomorrow. Fr. Imad was kind enough to buy me some shirts and lend me a couple pairs of pants until my clothes get here.

Jordanians are very hospitable. Wa'il, a professor who is a friend of Fr. Imad's, showed Caroline, Marlice and I around the town of Houson (where I live). He took us to his place for coffee (really strong stuff!), and I struggled to stay away because of the long flight. I was determined not to sleep until night, because otherwise I would be jet lagged for days. It worked!

Wa'il took us to his sister and brother-in-law's place. Wa'il's sister is beautiful and has a smile that would make Hitler at ease. She was very kind, and got us tea, coffee, cookies, and even made us dinner. Wa'il and I had a contest to see who could eat the most hot pepper at once. I think he won.

Tonight, I'm going to check out the city of Irbid. It's not far, and is apparently much bigger than Houson.

There's a lot more to say, but I think I'll leave that to the pictures once I get my connector cord (it's in my suitcase, of course). Until next time, ma'a saalam!